Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
by obsidians
Summary: This story to dedicated to emeraldd30, who I promised to write a Halloween special Tifa/Sephiroth in her honour, however I got busy and shall have to split this into chapters. Tifa's date cancelled and Sephiorth needs one so they decide to attend the WRO Halloween party together. I might have to change the rating to mature depending on future content.
1. Chapter 1

"You want me to what?" Sephiroth demanded.

"Bring a date to the Halloween dance. It doesn't have to be a female, but I do draw the line that it has to be human" Rufus insisted and then blanched when he remember who he was talking to. "Sorry" he said to his death glare.

Sephiroth drew up to his full height as a means of intimidation as he always did when made uncomfortable by something, "and why is this necessary?" He demanded in a cool, deadly calm voice.

"I gave you back your rank as a means to acclimate you back to society but you have made no effort to try and fit it, you alienate all who try to befriend you and refuse all those who try to be amorous with you. I don't know what your deal is or your gender preference, but you have to seem approachable in your position. You know that in the military, being a family man is good for the public image" Rufus explained.

"Then where is your significant other sir?" Sephiroth asked him pointedly.

"I shall marry when the time is right, I am young enough that I can play the field" Rufus coldly said. "At least I'm dating" he said defensively.

"I am not into dating" Sephiroth simply said.

"Look you can make it as platonic as you wish, you can bring another person just as frigi-with the same aversion to touch and communicate strictly through sign language from across the room if you wish, as long as they are there with you. So-go-find-someone" Rufus ordered him.

Sephiroth sighed, feeling troubled by this turn of events. "Where can I find a date?" He muttered to himself as every single person in the office stared longingly after him.

"It's not like I have Angeal, Genesis or even Zack to take along with me under the guise they are my date" he added as he flipped off his office lights and got into the elevator surrounded by the secretarial pool, as hot eyes strip searched every inch of him in helpless devotion.

"I guess there are people you can pay to act as an escort, but that is too demeaning" he muttered further as he walked obliviously through crowds of admiring eyes.

"Could I ask my receptionist? No I don't think her husband would like that" he murmured as he walked into Seventh Heaven as he was meeting Tseng there. The two rather isolated and intelligent men had bonded over a game of chess and had become acquaintances of a sort and would get together for drinks upon occasion. He nodded politely at bar owner, Tifa and took a seat beside Tseng while Tifa went to answer the phone.

"So do you have a date for the WRO Halloween dance?" Sephiroth asked Tseng conversationally.

"Yes I'm going with my girlfriend" he said sharing a smile with the young woman, Yuffie sitting beside him. "Wait, are you asking me on a date?" Tseng said in surprise.

Sephiroth fumed, "I'm expected by Rufus to bring a date to this dance. I don't have a single person in this whole world to ask" he groused, ignoring the entire table of women admiring him with dewy eyes.

"What a fox" one of them sighed out loud. He frowned wondering how he resembled a small, red furred creature with pointy ears and a tail, then put it down to female insanity and turned his attention back to Tseng.

"But Cloud, you promised to come with me. I haven't seen you for months" Tifa protested. "I worked for weeks on our costumes" she complained.

"I'm sorry Teef; something came up" he said looking apologetically at the young woman sitting beside him. "I'll make this up to you" he promised.

"Fine" Tifa said, slamming down the phone, feeling disappointed beyond belief because Halloween had always been their favourite holiday and both had been born in the month of October and close to that date, so they always celebrated this together.

"Was your cousin upset?" She the woman asked him.

"She'll be fine" he said, turning to her with a smile and taking her hand.

"How could he? That son of a-" Tifa cursed and then pasted on a polite smile to go take the drink orders from her friends...and Sephiroth who she had a grudging tolerance for these days after having him apologized and left the biggest tips ever on record for his drinks.

"So what will it be? Let me guess, a white wine for Tseng and two Shirley Temples" she said.

"Are you okay Tifa?" Yuffie asked her friend.

"Cloud cancelled on me for the party" Tifa admitted.

"What a jerk" Yuffie said.

"I'll have something stronger, something with alcohol" Sephiroth cut in.

"Would you look at the lush" Tifa remarked.

"I'm troubled by an order that I've been given" he explained.

"It's not so big a deal, you're a good looking guy and women aren't so hard to talk to. Just start a conversation and ask someone. Here practice on Tifa" Tseng suggested.

"Fine, Miss Lockhart, would you do me the honour of allowing me to escort you the WRO Halloween party? We don't have to do anything...physical in the least, that is certainly not expected..nor being offered" he firmly stated

"Don't flatter yourself. So what would we do during our non-physical time together?" She asked him sharply.

"I would be a perfect gentlemen, I would give you my full attention, dance with you if you want to and have you home at whatever time you deem respectable" he assured her.

"You're on" she said.

"Are you serious?" Tseng said just as Sephiroth opened his mouth to ask the same thing.

"Yes" she said, she could certainly tolerate Sephiroth whereas Cloud couldn't stand him and that made the idea of Sephiroth as her date all that more delicious. "I made a costume for Cloud" she said doubtfully looking at the tall man. "Would you like to try it on?" She asked him.

Both women cracked up as Sephiroth came out in the shirt that terminated just over top his sculpted abs, that seemed to threaten to rip off of him with just the way his muscles flexed as he moved. As for the pants, although his waist was small, Cloud's proved to be smaller at how he couldn't do the zipper up all the way and they were not only short, but skin tight.

"Oh my General, you look so..." Yuffie said and could only helplessly bury her head in Tseng's shoulder and laugh.

"Perhaps I can add more fabric and let it out a bit?" Tifa dubiously said, adding her own titters to Yuffie's.

Tseng merely stood there observing the General with a neutral look on his face "you look like an idiot, that doesn't even come close to fitting you. You look like something out of a comedy sketch. I suggest you try a rental place" he said, trying to school his features against his own laughter and then finally had to succumb to add his own guffaws.

"What am I supposed to be?" Sephiroth asked, staring down at the costume.

"The pirate king; I'm going as the pirate queen" Tifa explained. "I'll call the rental shops to see if they have any pirate outfits left" she volunteered.

"Like the Pirates of Penzance?" He asked her.

"Sure, whatever that is" Tifa said after getting his sizes in street clothes and calling around. "Good news, there is a pirate outfit left in this place that should fit you and he's going to hold it for you" she said handing him the information.

"Thank you for doing the research, I'll stop in on my way home" he promised her.

Sephiroth could only stare in the mirror "this is what a pirate normally wears?" He asked dubiously. He was used to his normal clothing which didn't really cover that much more of him, but this was a tad...revealing for his tastes.

"More like a pirate dancing at a themed bachelorette night. You know, a pirate on the stripper pole? The outfit is mainly rented out for those sort of events" he explained to him.

"I guess it will have to do, considering I have match the costume of my date" Sephiroth said feeling like an utter idiot at how he was dressed.

"You certainly have the body to carry it off. I would recommend you wear tight underwear that night, but you don't wear underwear do you?" He guessed.

"No" Sephiroth admitted.

"Good luck" he said as he rang up his rental.

Sephiroth preferred to workout after business hours in the WRO gym and dojo simply because at how enhanced he was, he could easily outpace and outlift any normal man. So he didn't want normal men getting hurt by trying to keep up with him. So he would ran through his sword katas for a few hours in place of stretching, before running the track at a punishing pace and then doing some weighttraining using the _machines_ themselves. During this, he idly was wondering what a date consisted of.

He never been on one before, he only knew in theory what went on. He remembered his friends trying on various pants and shirt combinations for his opinion and fussing over their appearances to a degree of severity depending on their interest in the person. This behaviour had mystified Sephiroth as he thought they looked the same as usual to his eyes. They had explained to him the gist of dating to him mainly out of his idle curiosity, rather then his need to imitate their behaviour.

Each of his friends had a certain gender preferences, Genesis was fully bi-sexual, Angeal mildly so, but mainly into women and Zack a real lady's until he met a certain girl. His own, if he were to consider it, seemed to be women. He certainly hadn't been attracted to his friends or any of the other men he dealt with on a regular basis.

He finished working out and had a shower when a group of men walked in and seemed to be studying him. He just went about his business, used to be stared at. "Hey General, I understand that you're taking Tifa Lockhart to the Halloween party?" a particularly obnoxious person named Sargent Ross inquired.

"She has agreed to be my date for the evening" he conceded, as he got dressed, wondering how that was any of his business.

"I would be intimidated to date a woman with that much experience" he said.

"Intimidated, why?" Sephiroth said with a frown.

"Well naturally, she will be comparing your performance that of any lovers she has had before you" he explained.

"Performance?" Sephiroth. "I'm not going to be part of the entertainment" he said, causing the men to crack up and his ire to raise.

"Sexually" the man crudely pointed out.

"That shall _not_ be happening" Sephiroth said with a finality in his voice.

"You will at least be expected to kiss her and well, good luck, General, I think you have bitten off more than you can chew" the man said dismissively and departed with his friends.

Sephiroth could only sit there in shock. Surely women didn't expect a man to get intimate with them on the first date? He was sure there had to be some rules when it came to dating and what was required of him at each stage.

Fully dressed, he went to the library to look up the etiquette of dating, it took some doing, but eventually he did discover the rules.

He was allowed a kiss on the first date when he took the girl home and walked her to her front door.

 _A kiss_ he thought aghast. Sure it wasn't as scary sounding as full on intercourse where he would have been expected to strip naked and _do_ _things_ with his own body to someone else's body, that thought repulsed him. Yes he knew the mechanics of the act, but didn't wish to try them himself. He didn't care about being naked in front of another person, it was what was expected of him during that time that made him feel uncomfortable.

How hard could a kiss be? It was just pressing his lips against those of another person's for a few seconds.

Perhaps if he researched how to kiss, he would get more comfortable with the idea? Noticing his favourite librarian was on duty, he marched up to him.

"Hi John, I need your recommendation for some research" he said to him.

"Certainly Sephiroth, what will it be this time: ancient weaponry, current events happening in Wutai, basket weaving?" John asked, knowing and admiring Sephiroth's inquisitive mind and thirst for knowledge.

"Tips on kissing and any visual materials you have on hand" Sephiroth replied.

John stared at him as if he had grown two heads "I have the instructional material in the teenaged section and some supplemental reading for grown men. Then there are romance novels. As for visuals; I have an entire section of chick flicks that should help you" he said in a surprised voice.

"Here's my library card, just give me what you have" he said.

He read over the material when he got home and got weirded out it when it talked about French kissing, but was relieved to find out it wasn't mandatory. He was sure he could manage a quick, brief kiss, just enough to show her he had had a good time with her. First he would have to get used to hugging someone and experimented on a pillow, that wasn't so scary, he decided. It would be a cinch 1. step forward 2. hug her 3. kiss her with just enough enthusiasm to show he had enjoyed her company, but not enough to show he was interested in further dates and he would be on his way.

He attempted to read the romance novels and blushed as red as a tomato when he realized how _graphically_ they were written. Did it truly take eight pages to write out a sex scene when there was so little plot involved otherwise? Finally, he got bored and wondered what sort of perverts would read such trash.

Holding onto his pillow/date, he turned on the supplemental visual material and had his mind blown at the amount of tastefully done intercourse that they involved and how rational, intelligent men were moved to tears to be told they were told by the female romantic, lead that they were in love with them.

This was beyond kissing, it was a veritable hotbed of emotional insanity. Would Tifa really expect those smoldering glances from him? Those declarations of how happy her company made him? If he ripped open her top and exposed her mammaries, like the romantic lead did one scene, would she truly look at him like a hungry baby Chocobo and attack him with barracuda type kisses and roll around on the floor with him? He would be more likely be forced to pay for the destruction of her clothing and get charged with indecent assault at the very least.

He harkened back to the one encounter sexual he had had, okay not him _really_.

It had been the night of his nineteen birthday and his friends had taken him out to celebrate his being able to legally drink, not knowing how badly alcohol effected him due to the mako in his system. He had easily gotten wildly drunk and Genesis had picked up a girl and insisted he get laid before their curfew, so Sephiroth and Angeal had wound up in the girl's living room while the couple copulated in the other room.

Sephiroth was treated to the carnal sounds of copulation for first time in his life and had been horrified at how loud and animalistic they sounded, while Angeal tried to distract the drunken slightly younger man from them.

Sephiroth at the time had been introduced to the idea that people dated through his friends and was still young and naive enough to assume he would emulate that behaviour given time and exposure to what normality supposedly was. However that had never happened, Jenova had gotten in the way of that notion.

Instead he sat on the couch while his friend panted and groaned in time with the female he barely knew, while Angeal had tried to keep his inexperienced friend distracted by asking him questions.

Angeal, was a gentle giant of a man who had taken the Sephiroth under his wing when he had awkwardly sat on the sidelines, not knowing a soul after emerging from his hidden life or know how to interact socially with anyone. Angeal who had introduced him to his own friend, Genesis and the two strove to acclimatize him to his new way of life. Angeal who was perhaps the kindest, most noble person he had ever met.

"What do you want most in the world?" Angeal interrupted the caterwauling that was going on in the next room.

Now, Hojo had ingrained into him, should he be asked a question similar to this, to say "to be the best SOLDIER in the world." However, in his befuddled state, Sephiroth revealed his most closely guarded secret "love" he said and blushed that in his vulnerable state, he had admitted that out loud. Angeal was no more of a touchy feely person than Sephiroth himself, but had given him a quick hug and a look of pure compassion.

Sephiroth groaned out loud from the memory and then went back to watching the blush and vomit inducing movies, wondering why intelligent females would watch such pure drivel and also was it true in real life ,that background music swelled when females orgasmed? That surely must be very distracting. At least, he assumed was going on by their strained looking faces.


	2. Chapter 2

Tifa got into the outfit she had worked so hard on and was pleased with it.

She wore fishnet pantyhose with thigh high knee socks over top, that had red bows at the front. The dress itself was little than more a black peasant dress that was shorter in the front then the back. It had red organza sleeves and red ribbon trimmed the base of the skirt. That drew attention to the red cherry blossom wutai embroidered satin under bust, front laced corset she wore. She wore knee length black leather boots as well. A red scarf covered the top her head and this was crowned with the obligatory black pirate hat, but this one had the jolly roger depicted in red and black feathers graced it. Tifa added gold hoops to her ears and fastened a wide black leather belt around her waist from which dangled a fake cutlass.

She tried to find enthusiasm for her date when all she could think about was Cloud donning his matching costume and them dancing the night away. She had resolved that she would be polite to Sephiroth and be a good date to him, but it wasn't the same. With Cloud as her date it would have been...beautiful. With Sephiroth as her date it would be...dull. He was visually stunning, that was true but he was well, stogy.

She was just putting the finishing touches on her red kiss proof lipstick when she heard a knock at the door, then wondered why she had bothered with the extra expense of buying kiss proof lipstick if she was going to the party with _Sephiroth_.

Sephiroth stood outside of her door, reminding himself proper etiquette for meeting a lady at her door."Okay, I give her the flowers and don't go inside unless she invites me to. Compliment her appearance and help her on with her coat or wrap if she is wearing one" he recited to himself, wondering why anyone got any enjoyment out of dating, there were so many things to remember.

Tifa opened the door just as a bouquet of roses was brutally thrust towards her and she leapt back and got into a defensive stance before she caught herself. "Hello Miss Lockhart, I got you some flowers, I hope you like roses" Sephiroth said as woodenly as a talking head on the news as he burnished them towards the startled martial artist. "I must say that you look, lovely...what's wrong?" he asked at her weird posture.

"Nothing, I'm just not used to being attacked by posies. Thank you, it's the thought that counts. Would you like to come in while I put them in water?" she asked him, knowing she couldn't leave him to stand outside in the cold, so not knowing what else to do with him, she invited him in.

"Thank you" he said and stepped indoors.

"Don't bother removing your boots, please have a seat on..." she said and just as he slipped off his trench coat. "What are you wearing?!" she cried in a startled voice.

"It's the costume you directed me to pick up" he said, feeling his face flushing. "It is okay isn't it?"

He wore the standard combination of bat wing pirate shirt that was open down the middle of his body, had a wide black leather belt at his waist, black pants and folded over black leather slouch boots, but the difference was that his black pirate shirt was _sheer,_ making his preternatural pale skin seem to glow beneath it. Then there were his pants, they weren't just snug, they were black shiny _spandex pants_ and the way the light hit them showed off what appeared to be every contour of his manhood. Tifa was struck by three things 1. General Sephiroth didn't seem to have any underwear on. 2. The goddess had certainly blessed him indeed. 3. What the hell would he look like hard? Tifa had the urge to cover him with a blanket _and_ to ask him if he had stuffed a pair of socks down the front of his pants. "You look great" she said as enthusiastically as she could muster, he looked a couple of shades shy of indecent in fact."I'm sure you'll get lots of attention."

"Attention? Why would that be?" he asked her, his brows creeping up in confusion at this.

"Well, you know all of that...long beautiful hair of your. You look quite the vision in your costume" she said, looking pointedly up into his eyes, not allowing her own to drift downwards to where his manhood glared out in challenge through his painted on pants.

"Thank you, I thought it might be a tad too much. I wasn't quite comfortable in it until you assured me just now. I feel I can trust your judgment" he said, giving her a fleeting smile that briefly made him look years younger than his twenty eight years. "I do like your costume as well."

"Yours in certain memorable" she said.

"Aren't you going to put those flowers in water?" he reminded her and she looked down to where she was still holding the damp bundle of stems in a death grip.

"Oh, right. Be right back" she said and went to trim the stems and noted that they seemed to have been purchased in an actual flower shop and not at a gas station and were the first flowers she had ever received in her life and this made her glow a little. Cloud had not believed in cut flowers, saying that they would die anyway.

His gifts were always small things that he thought with appeal to her, but never sentimental items. More like a book by her favourite author and a cookbook for a new type of cooking that she wanted to try. That sort of thing, well appreciated but not something she could wear on her finger, especially on her marriage finger.

She came back to find Sephiroth sitting on her couch and thumbing through her book. "I hope you don't mind. I saved your place. I haven't read this one yet" he said placing the bookmark back in place and putting it down with a care that Tifa appreciated. She hated mistreated book with dogeared pages and all that to mark the reader's place. All of her own books looked almost brand new.

"I can loan it to you when I'm done with it" she offered.

"Thanks that would be very kind of you" surprised by her offer. "Can I help you into your coat?" he asked in a way that reminded her of the various young boys from her high school that attempted to impress her parents with their manners when they came to pick her up for dates.

"Sure" she said handing it to him and swept her hair up out of the collar as he carefully drew it up her arms and settled it into place. "Just one question, is your costume one piece of two?" she asked him.

"One piece" he replied.

"How are you going to relieve yourself?" she asked him.

"Excuse me?" he said in a strangled voice, flushing with embarrassment at her question. "That is not something I would _ever_ consider doing in public" he empathically assured her.

"I meant pee" she said and was struggling internally not to laugh at what he had had thought she meant.

"Invisible zipper" he replied and this cracked her up.

She had to admit that Rufus had shelled out some serious cash when they walked into the hotel. The dining area was darkly lit only with orange floodlights angled into the corners, the tables set with black tablecloths, making the silver place settings and silver coloured ladder backed chairs glint. A jack o lantern resided in the middle of each table and also a ghostly looking centerpieces of twisty black branches with glowing makos suspended from them. All of the wait staff wore different types of black metal lace masks.

Tifa exclaimed in delight at how an actual haunted house had been incorporated into the decor of the dance floor that pulsed with deadly rhythm in tune to the eerie light show as they toured the place before sitting down to dinner.

Sephiroth's outfit got quite the double takes but luckily, he didn't seem to notice as he led her over to their table to make sure they could find it before touring the place.

Tseng had carefully chosen the people for their table to because Sephiroth wasn't known for his laid back manner, so he chose people who were. Besides Yuffie and himself, he had asked Elena and Reno, who was escorting her to join them and Rude, with his own date, Jess. A delightfully sweet caramel skinned girl with a wide smile, large soft brown eyes that danced when she looked at him and sun streaked hair dark hair.

"Are you having a good time?" Sephiroth asked her, giving her that unnerving stare again that he didn't realize was. He had been instructed to maintain eye contact with his date.

"Yes I wouldn't mind having my fortune read" she said, looking across the room at the fortune teller.

"That stuff is such a waste of time. She's going to look at your ring finger and see that you aren't married and say there is a dark haired man in your future" he said.

"Oh come on, it's fun. You go first" she said pointing towards the unattended table. "I'll just hang back here so she can't use me in her fortune" she said urging him forward.

"There is no point, these people are all fakers, they notice things about people and then make up a fortune based on that" he said.

"Come on, where is your sense of adventure?" she asked him giving him a crooked smile.

"I don't have one; I only believe in scientific facts" he groused.

"Come on, for me then" she said.

"Oh very well" he said with a sigh and walked over to her table.

"Who approaches Madame Zenka?" the young gypsy asked him.

"It's...a stranger" he said. "I would like to have my fortune told" he said having a seat opposite her.

"I need the palm of your left hand" she said and he cringingly gave it to her and she traced her slim finger along the lines there in a way that almost tickled him. "Yours in an old soul, you have been through many lifetimes and this one hasn't treated you very well. You were born at another time and have died and returned to your present form more than once because of an entity who controlled you, but that is no longer the case. You feel displaced, like you have no place you belong, you dream of it all stopping but it won't. You have known infinite pain and suffering but have come through all of that. Your future isn't half so bleak as you believe and your greatest wish can be achieved if you only let your true emotions show" she said.

"Well that was nice and cryptic" he said, taking his hand back. "As if you don't know who I am" he said stalking away, more disturbed by what the girl had said then he cared to admit.

"See, sheer nonsense, it was all bunk" he declared, joining Tifa.

"My turn" she said making her way over to the table.

"Hello, I would like to get my fortune read" she said to the lady.

"Madame Zenka needs your left hand then" she said and traced the lines of her hand. "You are involved with a man who is false to your feelings when there is a new trustworthy man who will give you what you seek if you are willing to forget past wrongs, no matter how atrocious they are. Love is there to claim if you are willing to overcome all barriers he will put up" she said.

"So I suppose he'll be a dark, handsome stranger?" Tifa said skeptically.

"He is neither dark nor a stranger, you know him but don't know the real him, not yet" she intoned.

"I guess you saw the guy I was with" Tifa said taking her hand from the woman.

"I'm legally blind, I can only see what the spirits of fates reveal to me" the girl explained.

"Well?" Sephiroth asked her upon her return, his arms crossed over his broad chest.

"You were right; total bunk" she agreed.

"Sephiroth, Tifa, over here" Yuffie's voice split the air.

"Hi Yuffie, I love your Little Bo Peep costume" Tseng said to the Wutaian girl, who wore pink a checked blouse and full skirt with an apron over top, matching bonnet and carried a shepherds hook. "Tseng, you look very..." Tifa said turned to him and Sephiroth's hand covered his mouth to muffle the sound of his mirth. Tseng wore a full wooly body suit of a lamb with black ears, coven footed matching boots and a pink bow around his neck, his costume was open faced and his nose had been blackened by makeup.

"Commander Xu?" Sephiroth said with his eyebrows raised and eyes squinted, still struggling not to laugh.

"Yuffie decided to surprise me with our costumes, at least I don't have my manhood practically on display" he said defensively.

"At least I have one to display right now" Sephiroth said with a smirk.

Tifa had to admit she was having a good time as the eight people remained together after dinner and even Sephiroth proved entertaining in his way at his endless recall for detail. They all explored the haunted house, which failed to scare any but the highstrung Yuffie whose loud screams startled the players more than their tricks and disguises did the rest of them.

Finally the couples started dancing and soon they each spun in tune to the slow dances. Sephiroth seemed just fine watching the others. "Would you like to dance?" he startled her by asking.

"Do you know how?" she asked him.

"Daughters of dignitaries had to be kept entertained, as long as a SOLDIER didn't have two left feet, he was taught to dance with them" he said holding out his hand.

Tifa almost laughed at how far back he stood from her, there was plenty of space for the Goddess in between them as he led her gracefully around the dance floor with more rhythm than she normally possessed. She covered her mouth with her hand when he bowed over her hand at the end. He was so stuffy!

"I would like a drink, would you care for one?" Sephiroth asked her.

"Sure I would like a white wine" she said.

"I'll go get it" Sephiroth offered, going to the second bar.

"So Sephiroth, you think you're going to score tonight?" a voice beside him asked.

He turned in annoyance to see Sergeant Ross there.

"I have no plans other than making sure my date gets safety home" Sephiroth said through clenched teeth.

"You would probably have to join the line for her anyway" he said.

"Do not talk about Tifa like that" he ordered him.

"Come on Sephiroth, admit you got it on with her. The perpetual virgin act is fooling no one" Sergeant Ross said. Meanwhile Tifa had decided to follow him and felt tears come to her eyes at the insults. So many men assumed because of the way she dressed, she was easy. But she wasn't, she had only been with one man in her life and still pined for him. She waited for Sephiroth to tell the other man she had turned down many times, that what he said was true. They always did. For someone who slept in a lonely bed Cloud had long ago vacated, she certainly had a lot of bed partners in people's imaginations.

Instead he grabbed Sergeant Ross and shoved him against the wall. "You know, I am getting quite sick of your attitude. Tifa is a lady and would never have succumbed to any type of charm you claimed to have. She is no more a harlot than you are a gentlemen. Why do you feel the need to cast aspersions upon her character? Was it because she refused you and agreed to go on a date with me? Yes, I think that it is. If a man is secure in his manhood, he wouldn't go around shooting his mouth off about affairs that don't concern him. Now I shall be taking Tifa home at the end of the night and if she decides to kiss me good night, that is my business and hers" he said and then got the drinks and prepared to leave the annoying man's presence.

Tifa felt a wave of tenderness toward him for defending her honour, that she grabbed his arm as he was about to walk past her.

"There you are, baby. I changed my mind about that drink, let's go dance. They're playing our song" she purred at him, leveling a smoldering glance at him as her arm wrapped around his waist.

"Um, yeah" he sputtered as his own arm awkwardly wrapped around her back, not knowing what else to do it with it.

"Sergeant Ross, how dare you keep Sephikins to yourself" she said towed him away.

"Sephikins?" Sephiroth thought as he stumbled beside her, wondering if he were in an alternate dimension. He had to have been with Tifa clinging onto him, flirting and calling him by strange monikers.


	3. Chapter 3

Sephiroth obliged the bizarrely acting Tifa by dancing with her to what apparently was "their song." He had heard it played before in passing but had never paid attention to it. It certainly wasn't to his taste, when he listened to music it was only for background noise in his place and he preferred classical music or light jazz.

He had led the clinging girl onto the dance floor and held his hand out to her and placed another on her back in correct position and she had _leaned_ right into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He blushed at how much of her was touching him and then noticed everyone else around them seemed to be dancing in a similar way. He placed his hands around her waist and started to sway them in similar fashion in what appeared to him to be an extended hug. He couldn't recall ever being this close to a female before, in the past he had avoided being partnered for the more intimate dances and had only asked his companions to dance to the shorter songs.

He hadn't really had a lot of encounters with the fairer sex in his "before" life. He remembered the feeling of soft arms holding him and a feminine voice singing him to sleep, a song a featuring a mockingbird that he still remembered the words of to this day. He must have been very young at the time, under one year old surely and that person had vanished one day as if she had never existed and he still felt a touch of separation anxiety when he thought back on this. Whoever she had been, she had long hair that he liked to grab and she smelt a certain way, later on in life he had identified the scent as Shalimar perfume that put him in a relaxing state when he smelled it.

The encounters after that had been the daughters of the higher ups he escorted to various events and then his friend's girlfriends. Sometimes one of the two would get too flirty and his friends would be there to set her straight.

"Isn't this song beautiful?" Tifa suddenly said from her location of pressing against his breastbone.

Sephiroth finally listened to the lyrics; they were going on about taking the singer's breath away "it's a song about erotic asphyxiation?" he guessed, remembering how Genesis had been into that, but there was very little he hadn't tried as far as Sephiroth could tell.

"You're so silly, no it means that someone leave you breathless because you're in awe of them" she explained.

"That sounds kind of dumb" he said.

"That's what falling in love feels like, I'm sure you remember that. You had some many people after you back in the day" she said looking up and studying him with her carmine eyes.

"Just because you're being chased doesn't mean you have ever been caught, so no I don't. There was someone; but they proved false and detrimental to your town, myself and the world at large. After that, do you really think I should end my perpetual bachelorhood?" he pointedly asked her and wondered why she looked so sad at this.

"Everyone should know love at least once in their lives. I mean the love of a person, not a thing. There is nothing like it, love makes your heart sing, love makes you feel so alive..." she enthused.

"Want to listen to really stupid songs and read far too much into them?" he scoffed.

"But the person you love is the most beautiful person to you and they are all you see, love makes you giddy and yet more grounded then you ever have been in your life. Like you can fly..." she said with wonder in her voice.

"I can fly" he reminded her, wondering when the last saccharine note of the sappy song would fade out so he could end his shuffling zombie hug dance and release the clinging girl. How could anyone enjoy something that made them practically wrap themselves around another body?

Ludicrous.

"Well most of us can't" she admonished him.

"So can Vincent. See? It's not so uncommon" he said dismissively.

"Most of us _unaugmented_ people can't. Now quit interrupting me. Love makes you silly..." she said.

"Then Tseng really must love Yuffie" he deadpanned in a way that made her laugh.

"You don't understand because you've never been in love. One day you will meet someone you can't live without and do everything in your power to bind them to you and they won't object because they feel the same way about you. I know that I'm lucky because I found the love of my life long ago. You'll find someone" she encouraged him.

"So love is a form of bondage? Thanks, I don't go in for whips and chains and all that. I could see how it would be nice to have a pleasant female dining companion once in awhile but beyond that, it is best I steer clear of romantic entanglements. I wasn't meant for any of that" he said dismissively and then frowned over at a table of girls who were talking so loudly he could barely hear the music, which as fine with him. They stopped dancing and looked over curiously at the sight of a beautiful blonde woman fluttering around them, dressed as a vampire bride.

"We're engaged! We've only been together for six months" she announced to her friends.

"Oh you're so lucky, Cloud is so handsome" one of the girls cooed as she studied her ring.

Sephiroth actually felt a touch of concern when Tifa's arms dropped from him like they were suddenly made of lead and her small hands balled into fists, her face was a mask of confusion as she turned around to face her.

"I'm sorry, did you say Cloud?" She demanded.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She asked the strange irate looking woman in front of her.

"I'm Tifa Lockhart. Do you know Cloud?" She demanded and then froze in shock when the unknown women hugged her.

"Cloud's cousin" she announced.

"But, I'm not..." She said.

"Sorry, who are you?" Sephiroth interrupted, his need to get to the bottom of all things taking over.

"I'm Eliza Winfield-Sifton" she said, "I heard all about you" she said taking Tifa's hands. "He give me such a beautiful ring; it's a family heirloom engagement ring" she said holding it out for both of them to see.

Tifa's eyes prinked with tears at the confirmation of Cloud's betrayal, "it was his great-great grandmother's ring, his great-great grandfather chose to give her a yellow diamond to match her luxurious blonde hair, it runs in the family" Tifa said in a neutral sounding voice where only Sephiroth could hear the heartbreak in it.

"As in thee Winfield-Siftons?" Sephiroth said, his eyebrows raising in astonishment at the prestigious family name.

"Yes, that's us" she said with a friendly smile.

"I must say it's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Sephiroth. I knew your father very well and your grandfather was practically a military legend" Sephiroth enthused.

"I'll tell Daddy you said hi" she said with a giggle.

Sephiroth wanted to talk to the young woman some more, but then caught a glimpse Tifa's anguished face and reminded himself that he had a duty to her as his date and he wasn't a man to shirk that.

"Eliza" they heard a voice say and both turned around to find Cloud there dressed as a vampire, wearing a black tuxedo with red vest over his black shirt, that matched his red and black cape and his usually, unruly, spiky hair was slicked back.

"I just ran into your cousin" she said, wrapping her arms around him.

"Tifa, what are you doing here?" Cloud asked her.

"I could ask you the same thing" she spat as her tears welled up.

"Why are you here with Sephiroth?" He asked her with an irritated frown.

"You cancelled on me and he offered to escort me. You have the nerve to ask me that? Who is this?" She demanded.

"I just told you..." Eliza said in confusion, staring from one to the other.

"She's his fiancée. Tifa, we should get going" Sephiroth said, knowing when it was time to take charge in a situation like any good commander does.

"No, I want to know" she cried.

"Tifa, I can explain, but not here" Cloud said by way of agreement, grateful for Sephiroth's interference for once.

"Tell me about yourself, Eliza, I certainly _never_ have heard of you" Tifa demanded.

"Tifa, a public venue is not a place to air your dirty laundry. Let's go explain to your friends that we are leaving and I will take you home. Shouting like a fishwife isn't going to solve anything. A person's dignity to their most valuable possession" Sephiroth intoned to her.

"Fuck that, just because you decide you suppress everything...look how well that worked for you the first time" she shot back at him, on the verge of tears and she went to punch him, needing to hit someone out of anger and knowing him to be the most indestructible person there, he easily caught her wrist.

" .Leaving." he insisted.

"Tifa, I never thought I would say this, but go with Sephiroth" Cloud requested of her, anxious that Tifa would attract more attention to them and damage the reputation of his famous fiancée.

Tifa was numb as she allowed Sephiroth to lead her back to their group and explained she wasn't feeling well and he was taking her home. Yuffie sensed that there was more going on, but the kind hearted Tifa wanted her friend to have a good time at her first formal event with her boyfriend.

Sephiroth had no idea what to do, he was hardly the type to help someone through their grief, when his friends had been upset, they always wanted to either get in a fight of some sort and a trip to the VR room helped with that as it avoided unnecessary bloodshed. Or they wanted to drink and that was easy enough to find. Tifa followed him as the _least_ sociable of the two sought out the important people to make excuses to and finally got their coats, helped her into hers and they were on their way.

"I'll see you to your front door" he said as he opened the door to their taxi for her. Then a loud sob startled Sephiroth and Tifa burst into tears and he awkwardly reached over drew her _slightly_ towards him and patted her on the back.

"What are you doing?" She sobbed.

"Hugging you" he said.

"That's a hug?" She said in surprise.

"I'm not really good at this kind of thing" he said. "Wait, I know what to do" he said and leaned over and instructed their driver of another location to take them to.

Tifa could only stare at the banana split that Sephiroth had bought her as they sat in a pink ice cream parlour called Hartley's Teas 'N Tarts. "I'm sorry, it's the winter, why are you buying me ice cream?" She asked him as he sat opposite her and sipped his tea.

"My friend Zack always instructed me that if a female was crying, to buy them ice cream and sympathize with them and they will do anything in gratitude" Sephiroth.

"Anything?" Tifa asked him. "Sounds like your friend Zack was a bit of a playah" she remarked.

"Yes" Sephiroth said, not having a clue what she meant, most slang eluded him . "I don't expect anything" he lamely answered.

"Could you talk about something?" She asked him.

"What do you want me to talk about?" He asked her, feeling highly uncomfortable how her garnet eyes shone with unshed tears.

"Anything; talk about your life. I need distraction" she said miserably and sniffled, leaving Sephiroth with that uncomfortable fish out of water feeling again.

He stared at the white table cloth before them, "there is really nothing positive to say about my life, it was hardly full of happy memories and would probably make you more depressed if you knew the whole truth" he said and Tifa was actually a little surprised that he was sharing that much.

"So tell me more about your friends, I remember Zack and yourself, but what about the others?" she said and was almost shaken to the core when a nostalgic smile spread over his features.

"I met them when I first joined SOLDIER, Angeal and Genesis were already friends from the same town and Angeal drew me into their twosome. They helped socialize me. If you think I'm bad now; you should have seen me before" he said shooting her a glowing glance pointedly through his long black eyelashes. "Genesis had the hot temper of a true red head, he was a passionate man, very dramatic. Angeal was friendly and calm, very kind and a true believer in justice. His honour meant the world to him. Zack was, well, he was friendly as well but the complete opposite to Angeal's calm nature, he had a short attention span and was into everything at once. I met him when Angeal mentored him, he just kind of a good fit. I was the least outgoing of them, so twice a month they had a boys night where all four of us got together by ourselves and would take turns making dinner. My cooking was truly atrocious before Angeal helped me learn how, they used to show up with take out food when they came to my place..." Sephiroth said and told her all he could remember about them and she found herself laughing as she got to know his friends. He had a very nice voice when not spewing out crazy talk, she decided, it was a silky baritone. Most of his memories were bitter-sweet and he actually showed his grief to her for a split second before his mask settled back into place, when he ended it with the destruction of all their lives, including his own.

"They seemed to be nice guys" Tifa said.

"They were and I am the only one who really remembers them as they were, I'm not much of a tribute to their memories I guess" he said in a depreciating way and then Tifa realized she had finished her sundae while listening to his story in a rapt way. His recollection to detail was second to none and it felt to her like she had met them all personally by the time his tale was done.

"You're not so bad" she found herself saying, earning a sharp glance from him.

"Let's get you home" he said, going to settle the bill before they got into painful memories on both of their parts, his out of guilt and hers out of everything Jenova's dominance of him took from her.

They stood on her doorstep, "well aren't you going to kiss me?" She said, almost challenging him to in a semi-hysterical way in her grief. She wanted him to kiss her harshly, to take her against her own door, she wanted to be almost violated in her pain. Sephiroth she couldn't see being a gentle lover and she needed a release after so many years of waiting for a man who proved false.

He bent over to kiss her as he had practiced, but then leaned decisively back, changing his mind, "no, that would be taking advantage of you in your sad condition" he said.

"Really?" She said in surprised.

"Yes, I'll stay only long enough to make sure you lock your door behind you" he said.

"But what about you? You live ten blocks away, will you be safe this time of night?" She asked him. He answered her by quirking one eyebrow at her "sorry, I forgot who I was talking to" she said.

"Just go inside, I promise to get home just fine. Thanks for the date, it was...pleasant until the end. I shall see you around" he said and then faded from view as she watched him depart through the peephole in her door.

Sephiroth thought he would just run into Tifa in passing or when he and Tseng arranged meet times at her bar, so he certainly didn't expect to be called out of his office Monday morning to be told that Miss Lockhart needed to speak with him. He went into the main cubicle area of the office and went still with shock to find her standing a reception and everyone else in the office appeared to there as well, including Rufus.

He was used to seeing her in her standard, black, white and red abbreviated outfit and now her pirate queen outfit, but her new outfit was very different from them both. She wore a red rose print dress against black. It was backless and halter style with straps that tied behind her neck. Her skirt was flared and seemed to have a crinoline beneath it and fell to her knees, her hair was loose but had been styled into waves and she wore no makeup but dark red lipstick and a tiny bit of black eyeliner to highlight her large eyes. Medium patent leather high heeled shoes completed her outfit.

"Did you need something, Miss Lockhart?" He asked her, surprised by her appearance, it seemed to be only a sundress, but it also seemed overkill for that time of the morning. Although it was more demure than her usual style of dress, she somehow looked deadly as all hell as if she were on the prowl.

"Yes you owe me something" she said.

"What is that?" He asked her with a frown at her hungry look.

"This" she said as she seized the collar of his leather trench and pulled his head downwards to hers and sealed his lips to hers in a soul claiming kiss, he was so shocked that he kissed her back as he had been practicing. He could feel heat travelling along the length of his body as her arms stole up to pull his unresisting and shocked body flush against hers, he felt like his toes would curl if they weren't firmly planted in his boots.

As for Tifa, she was resisting the urge to elevate one foot, a la any romance movie she had ever seen in her life and wondered where the hell Sephiroth had learned to kiss like _that_.

His own arms went around her as he caught her rhythm, he angled his head to deepen their kiss and shut his eyes and surrendered to the sensation that was foreign, yet exciting. Waves of heat seemed to radiate from where their lips were joined to travel downwards to their loins, igniting those long dormant and those that never had been before.

His lips opened under the subtle pressure of her velvety tongue and she moaned and leaned even further in to explore the soft depths of his mouth.

It was only when someone cleared their throat that they remembered where there were, both lost in the hunger of their shared kiss.

When they pulled away, they were both breathing heavily and he kept staring at her plush, ripe lips that reminded him so much of succulent berries of a species of plant he was unfamiliar with and could easily kill him, but he would have happily died. Then he glanced about and blushed as red as a tomato that everyone had been watching them. "General you kiss like a wet dream" she purred.

"Thanks" he said with a visible gulp of embarrassment and opened his to explain to the startled looking people what was going on and then closed it again when he realized he had no explanation and found out what the expression hot and bothered really meant.

Tifa however, had recovered from her own hot and bothered-ness and said to Rufus. "I know it's kind of early, but I hope you don't mind, I would like to take this bad boy to lunch," turning to the flustered looking man.

The normally verbose man just made a shooing motion with his hands to dismiss them to get his head on straight after witnessing so erotic a scene in his office that included, _Sephiroth_ of all people.

Sephiroth said nothing as he took her to the restaurant he frequented, in fact he refused to look at her until he was seated and they both had menus in their hands. He waited until his blush subsided and finally lowered his menu. "Why?" he asked her.

"Mainly for what that idiot, Sergeant Ross, said about us. I am not a trollop and how can he talk down to you like that? Everyone knew your reputation back in the day" she said with a victorious smile.

"Right" he said, knowing she was talking about his supposed reputation as a real ladies man. SOLDIER could hardly admit their virile looking figurehead was actually an asexual virgin who had no interest in changing that status, so rumours were spread and caught fire and the next thing he knew, he had supposedly laid half the planet.

"I gotta ask you, where did you learn to kiss like that?" She asked him.

His face went almost a deadly shade of puce to remember his time practicing kissing on his pillow/date. "Practice" he said from his place buried behind his menu, pretending to be strategically ignoring her. "Okay you kissed me out of revenge?" He asked her.

"I want to propose something. You said you lack female companionship. How would you like to change that?" She asked him.

He put his menu down when it was safe "I'm listening" he replied.

"I really appreciate how thoughtful you were to me last night and realize I don't really know you. I mean when I met you, you were this quiet guy who always seemed to be lurking close to a wall and then you were..." She said and pretended to be stabbed with an invisible sword and then pretended to laugh insanely.

"Sorry I really don't recall much of that time. Why would you want to spend time with me?" He asked her.

"You don't really seem to have many friends and I want to propose we try and forget the past and try again as if meeting for the first time. I, quite frankly could use the distraction. Everything would be strictly platonic. We could be friends who have dinner together and hang out. You said you wanted a dining companion and I don't want to eat alone every night" she honestly said.

"You already have plenty of friends" he said.

"People in relationships while I'm not" she said.

"Okay" Sephiroth agreed, feeling intrigued by the idea of having a female friend.

"I'll have my usual, two chateaubriand meals and the lady will have whatever she wants" he said.

"I'll have the chicken Kiev" Tifa told him. "How much can you eat?" She asked him, surprised at the amount of food he had ordered.

"I need to eat the amount of food three men would normally eat in the day with my metabolism" he admitted.

"Good to know, I make a mean lasagna, I'll make two of them when you come over for dinner on Thursday" she said.

"It's Tuesday, you mean Tuesday next week?" He asked her.

"No this Thursday, come over for six o'clock, I don't open the bar until eight" she ordered. "I like red wine" she added.


	4. Chapter 4

Tifa had invited him to dinner, true he had never been alone with a female before, but thought nothing of it, she had indicated that everything between them would be platonic. So he planned to be the perfect gentlemen as he had been back in the day when being forced to escort high born ladies around from prominent families while dodging their softly pampered, lily white groping hands. Had he been interested in them, Sephiroth suspected that half of the higher echelon's offspring would contain his own unusual DNA.

He had been kind of excited to be meeting with a new friend and had brought a very nice bottle of wine for them to share and flowers for the lady of the house. He had imagined it wouldn't be much different from having dinner with his friends back in the day, with the exception that certainly Tifa looked a lot different from any member of the all male SOLDIER program. He certainly had to admit he was attracted to her and then there was that heated public kiss that he still thought about with a mixture of longing and embarrassment, but was willing to overlook in pursuit of a simple friendship.

Their kiss had been...pleasant though he had caught a lot of flack for it, rumours had started about him being a lady killer again and gifts of condoms left in his locker until he finally got a lock for it. Having never needed one in the past, he was normally too well feared to have people mess with his stuff.

He had arrived exactly on time, he had even loitered in the alleyway beside her place for fifteen minutes so he wouldn't be early. When his watch said he had thirty seconds to go before six o'clock, he had knocked on her door. This time he was careful about _handing_ her the flowers and wine so she didn't think she was being attacked by them and she had smiled and hugged him, not knowing what to do in that circumstance, he leaned over the patted her on the back until she released him. He had been pleased with himself for learning how to separate himself from Tifa when she felt the need to get intimate with him.

They had talked of pleasantries while she put the final touches on dinner and he decanted the wine for them, allowed it to breathe and poured them each a glass. He gallantly set the table, he couldn't help noting that she had an older gate leg extendable wood table with a scratched up surface that he was sure had hosted many dinner parties and felt right at home. Angeal had had a similar table as his family hadn't had much money and his mother had gifted him the heirloom table his grandfather had made when he left Banora. It was at this table that Sephiroth learned that other people had parents who cared for them, even though Angeal's home life proved to be just as deceptive as Sephiroth's own. He would take phone calls from his Mother while Angeal cooked and relayed her comments to her son, half of which would make the tough as steel bulky man blush like a maiden while she gushed to him about him being her "little boy".

Angeal was the only one who made any real effort to create a home of the apartments assigned to them after they were promoted to first class, his looked like a home. None of the places were great, they had the basic requirements and improved them according to disposable income and personal taste. Angeal's place was furnished with comfortable cast off furniture he found in thrift shops that was eclectic, but somehow blended together, he had colourful inexpensive paintings on wall purchased from him favourite local street artists in support of them. He had a window boxes which he grew his own herbs in and various houseplants that seemed to thrive, the walls were painted a cheerful pale yellow and everything about it just seemed to suit the gracious man.

Sephiroth's place, they jokingly termed it "the barracks" due to the lack of personality of the place. Sephiroth had no pictures or personal effects on display simply he had none to display and no interest in art or anything like that. His furniture was simple and picked for function only with no thought to form and the walls have never been repainted from the original eggshell off white that came with the place.

As for Genesis's place, it resembled a brothel with all of its red velvet drapery and divans and he had the first round bed that Sephiroth had ever seen that featured a neon red base and there was a remote that made the bed spin and pipe out seductive music on hidden speakers if Genesis wished.

Dinner hadn't been erotic in the least, they had discussed local the local election and found they were both in favour of the same candidate. After dinner, he had offered to do the dishes, but she had insisted that he not. So he had insisted again that he should. Finally they settled on her washing and him drying. That had gone fine until he dropped a glass and in his trying to catch it before it broke, it had broken at the pressure of his own hand tightened on it and glass shards had embedded themselves into his palm.

Tifa to her credit, didn't cry out or overreact as the pampered daughters who previously he had dealings with so far would have. She was used to enhanced men and with a soft motherly touch, took his hand and plucked the shards from it, she gently washed it free of any remaining slivers of glass and applied a towel until the skin mended and gently deposit a kiss in the center of his palm over the newly healed flesh. The gesture was simple yet touched him given that he never had anyone fuss over him before. She then looked up at him, released his palm and leaned up and said "there you're all better now" and he suddenly had the urge to kiss her again but she beat him to it and it kind of spiraled downhill from there.

Sephiroth pushed Tifa from him, "Tifa we have to stop. I rather doubt that this is what is considered platonic" he said, breathing heavy as if he had been running a marathon.

"So we like to kiss, it changes nothing. Just go with it" she said leaning in again.

"I should get going" he said, pushing her back.

"Stay and have coffee" she suggested.

"No I will use your washroom and leave" he insisted and practically ran into it. The image that he confronted in the mirror disconcerted him at what a wanton picture he painted. His hair was disheveled from busy hands, a pink blush stained the tops of his cheeks, his lips looked kiss swollen and his black turtleneck was rucked up on one side.

What had provoked her amorous attention? He wondered, yes his shirt was form fitting and it was with a touch of vanity that he had chosen the certain pair of blue jeans that he wore. They weren't super tight or anything, but just seemed to hug the right places on him and according to the lady that sold them to him, made his booty look great. He hadn't been aware she meant his bottom until he got home and looked it up, still he had bought them anyway.

He was dressed casually as she had suggested and was clean and neat in appearance but his outfit was nothing to brag about. So then why did it seem like he was on the menu for dessert? He splashed some water on his overheated face and resolved that would never happen again. He had been completely proper in his behaviour to the point of being almost formal around her from that point on, yet she kept on inviting him places and he kept coming.

Tifa was surprised when she got up one morning and got a text from Sephiroth telling her to meet him at the base of a mountain and not to wear a skirt, and then sent her another text that said, or anything that could ride up. Nothing too short in fact.

Sephiroth was already seated on a flat rock when she arrived "you made good time" he said, eyeing her black capri pants and long sleeved red top with approval.

"So are we going hiking?" she asked him.

"No there is something you have been implying you want to try with me and I've been holding back. It was just too personal until now. But now I want to share the experience with you" he said with a small blush.

"Wait you mean...here and now?" she asked him, they were at the base of the largest mountain in Edge but it was so close to a road, anyone could come along and see them.

"I don't need complete privacy for this" he said in confusion at her reaction and how she was blushing so vividly.

"Do we have to take all our clothes off?" she asked him in a small voice.

"So I can take you flying with me? You don't have to take anything off and neither do I. When I manifest my wing, it doesn't rip through my clothes or anything or I would have ruined many trench coats in the past" he explained.

"Oh we're going flying?" Tifa said.

"If you don't object, you said you would like to try it" he explained, not understanding why she seemed a tad...disappointed with his offer.

"Won't my extra weight throw you off balance?" she asked him.

"You weigh practically nothing, I could carry you four of you and it wouldn't phase me" he bragged to her.

"I would like to" she said.

"Then come here" he said holding out his hands.

"What do I have to do?" she asked him going trustingly towards him and then laughed as he scooped her up like a new bride and his large wing was suddenly in place on his back and he obliged her by angling so she could stroke it. He shivered as her small hand hit nerve endings never explored before as he never had let anyone explore this more unusual feature of himself. He was glad of her calm acceptance of it.

"Put your arms around my neck and don't let go" he said and with a spring upwards and a flap of his wing, they rose into the air.

"Oh my goddess" Tifa shouted in shock at first to find herself soaring up so fast with each beat of his powerful wing as the wind and motion of them caused their hair to billow around them as her dark chocolate silky fall married his silver flow.

"It's okay, you're safe. I've got you" he said as he paused in the air, held up by only the occasional flap until the nervous girl got used to the new height. She looked down in surprise and then back at the man that held her and was shocked that he was actually smiling.

"You like to fly?" she asked him.

"Up here I can just be myself, without having to worry about fitting into society, I'm a freak and admit it" he said with a levity that was so unlike her normally subdued friend.

"You're not a freak and you never were" she said touching his face and he surprised her by kissing palm of her hand, he wasn't being himself and felt positively giddy to share this experience with another person.

"Tifa, you are riding the air currents with a man with wings that has cat's eyes and silver hair. What does that make me?" he asked her, curious how she actually viewed him.

"That makes you...Sephiroth" she said.

"You are a very odd woman. How would you like to see the view from the top of the mountain?" he asked her.

"You're on" she said and they rose up and his heart skipped at beat at her giggles and then lips fastened over his and he kissed her eagerly back before wrenching them away.

"I need to be able to see so I don't put us into the side of the mountain, I'm not a bat and can't fly by sonar" he teased her. "So you said love is like flying, is that true now that you are?" He asked her.

"Very much so" she said as she snuggled even closer to him, she could hear his heart beat and knew by that point that his heart had been augmented to include more chambers and was larger then that of an average man's and beat twice as fast, yet it seemed to be racing more then usual as her soft cheek lay against his bare skin.

He reached the top of the mountain and both admired the view as they sat down to watch the sunset, he looked down while her hand slipped into his. Suddenly her plush lips met his and he allowed her in their frenzy of kissing to ease him back in the soft grass.

"Time to stop" he said, firmly doing up the buckles of his trench and standing up. "We're supposed to be platonic" he stubbornly said and crossed his arms over his chest and she just grinned at him.

Tseng could only look from one person to the other as Tifa told Yuffie about her time "flying" with Sephiroth while the man in question stole poignant glances at Tifa.

"Sephiroth, can I have a word with you?" Tseng asked him.

"Of course, Tseng" he said as he led him to a secluded corner.

"Sephiroth what are your intentions towards Tifa?" he asked him.

"I'm sorry, how is that any of your business?" he asked him.

"As the boyfriend of her best friend and a friend of hers, I want to make sure you know what you're doing. Tifa was hurt by the love of her life not so long ago" he reminded him.

"We're only friends" Sephiroth insisted.

"Okay, then this leaf is in your hair in case you want a snack for later?" he asked him and plucked it out and held it before him.

"It must have gotten entangled in my hair when we flew too close to a tree" he said in a frosty tone of voice he usually adopted as a defense mechanism.

"Yet it is dried up and looks like it already fell from the said tree and was lying on the _ground_ " Tseng said facetiousy.

"Okay we kiss a little" he said, blushing but refusing to look guilty.

"You two clearly have a strange definition of what a friendship consists of. However you both will have to figure out what is going on, I don't want either one of you get hurt and if you break her heart; I'll have to shoot you" he said and walked away and Sephiroth found himself confused as to what he meant. They were just friends; right?

Tifa went to Sephiroth's office to ask if he was in because he forgot his PHS at her place. "Sorry he called in sick today" his personal assistant, Archie said.

"Called in sick? But he never gets sick" Tifa said in surprise.

"He does two days a year" Archie blurted out and then slapped his hand over his mouth that he had imparted such sensitive information.

"What is that about?" she asked him.

"Look, no one is supposed to know, but because he's so enhanced, he needs to take a booster shot to balance his system, it's really hard on him. He has the take the time off" Archie explained.

Tifa went to Sephiroth's condo and knocked on his door, feeling more concerned about him then she cared to admit to herself.

Sephiroth was lying on his bed when he heard Tifa's knock, he wrapped a blanket around himself and opened the door.

"Tifa what are you doing here?" he asked her, leaning against the wall feeling uncustomarily hot and dizzy.

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded.

"Nothing, I was about to make tea, do you want some?" he asked her and went to put the kettle on when a wave of dizziness caught him and he staggered and she caught him and placed her hand on his forehead.

"You're trembling and you have a fever. Why didn't you tell me?" she asked him. "I could have taken care of you."

"I don't want you-anyone to see me like this" he said. "It is just a fever, it will soon pass. I don't need anyone" he said.

"Well I'm not leaving" she stubbornly said. "You should be in bed."

"I was in bed" he objected. "It's no big deal, I get a fever for the day, feel a little off the next day and am fine the day after that. No one is supposed to know about this. People can't know, the professor...my father" he said in a broken sounding voice.

"I'm not just anyone, I'm...I'm your friend. I am going to see you through this. What is your normal temperature?" she asked him.

"One hundred and six. You can't be here. It will get worse, I won't even be able to respond to you soon and will sleep only sporadically. I could say...do something that might hurt you and I won't know. I am never in control. Leave now" he ordered her, part of him wanting to leave while another part of him wanted to cling to her in his pain.

"Go back to bed, I'll bring you your tea in a minute" she ordered him and scooped his keys up. "After that I'm going to the grocery store to pick up snacks and other stuff you might need and get some clothes and toiletries for me so I can stay with you" she said decisively.

She carried it upstairs and found him looking miserable in bed and placed his tea beside him, "you shouldn't be here" he tried again.

"Drink your tea, I'll be back in about half an hour" she said.

Tifa thought what he had said was grossly exaggerated, he was barely lucid and mumbled a lot as he thrashed about. She wrung out the cloth and dabbed it on his forehead and then folded back his blankets to his waist to dab it on his sweaty chest. He was far into the grip of his fever and covered with a sheen of sweat. Suddenly he sat up his pupils hugely dilated and unfocused and said a title a certain way that made her blood run cold and long to flee the place, but forced herself to remain. "Mother?"

He could see her at the end of the bed even if Tifa couldn't.

 _ **"Yes it me my son, come back to me. We have much work to do.**_ _"_

"No you're not my mother, I had a human mother and a human father" he defiantly said and of course, Tifa could only hear his side of the conversation and placed her hands on his shoulders to try and push him back, but couldn't.

 _ **"Your mother was weak and never loved you, she abandoned you as all humans will. You are mine and always shall be, I'm the only one that loves you. I'm so proud of your strength and your beauty."**_

"I will never be your puppet again, you don't love me, you never did. You used me as a means to an end, but I don't belong to you. I'm not fully human but I'm not like you either, I am...I am Sephiroth" he roared defiantly at her, finally understanding what Tifa had meant by that. He wasn't a monster or a normal man, he was just him.

 _ **"So you think because you're falling in love with a mortal woman you can turn your back on me?"**_

"Falling in love. What are you talking about?" he asked her.

 _ **"You'll be back my arrogant son, she will prove herself false to you and you will need me again"**_ she sneered and vanished.

All the tension seemed to leave his body and he allowed Tifa to push him back and draw the covers over him, she gently stroked his hair back from his face and began to hum a lullaby her mother used to sing to her and his eyes seemed to focus on her. "Tifa?" He said.

"I'm here" she said smiling down at him.

"Will you hold me?" He asked her.

She took off her bathrobe, wearing a knee length sleep shirt beneath and got under the covers with him and pulled him against her, not caring that he was sweaty or naked and soon he succumbed to sleep and relaxed against her and she soon joined him in slumberland.

Sephiroth woke up with the usual body pains and general exhaustion that he always got from the night after he got his shot and hardly remembering anything, he realized that Tifa was nestled in his arms and they were cuddled up like two cozy peas in a pod and wondered how she had got there.

He was suddenly struck with the uncontrollable urge to make love to her went with it, without a thought as he caught her plump lips with his own and devoured them. His hands slipping up the loose folds of her sleep shirt to discover she was bare beneath as his hands explored a woman's body for the first time as if mapping it out. Yet he knew how to excite her and the location her erroneous zones, it was simple biology.

Tifa woke up to insistent kisses and the erotic feeling of fingers lightly pinching the sensitive points of her nipples, while other fingers stroked between the petals of her flower and worried the blooming bud of her sex and then delving into her hidden sheath to draw forth the dew of her arousal. Her eyes opened to find Sephiroth's eyes staring into her own and he leaned back with a look of desire and imploring as if asking her to allow him to continue. She answered him by taking a hold of her shirt which was pushed up under her armpits and taking it off and flinging it from them. Her arms came up and drew him down to her open mouthed kisses, as her fantasy of him taking charge and simply taking her came to life. Hers was a cry of pain and pleasure as his heavy tool entered her to depths that had never been penetrated so deeply before.

Sephiroth could feel each individual muscle of her extremely tight channel as they clenched on him, she was so snug and hot, his thoughts scattered like a string of pearls releasing from a broken string and he forced himself to move in her at an unhurried pace, wanting to relish his first forage into the unknown territory that was Tifa's body, conquering it and making it his own. The way her long legs wrapped around his slim hips clenched her already vice-like depths even harder on him and robbed him of any of his remaining senses.

His world shrank down to encompass her and only her as he drank in each moan, each clench and adjustment and flex of her body and quickly deduced that the music didn't swell in real life as a woman orgasmed but his own name heavily moaned in a stucco rhythm was music to his ears.

After that he set a brutal pace, eliciting three more before his own pent up release burst hotly inside her and it was his turn to cry out her name at the pinnacle of his pleasure. He sank into her arms to allow his new lover to hold him and she did as if he was a precious jewel.

Then his half asleep brain realized what he occurred, he had actually had intercourse and loved it! Did that make him a man now? He couldn't remember when he wasn't a man having never had a childhood, even at fourteen he had been expected to be one and responsible for many lives. So he scoffed that sex made a man a man. He already was one, yet he knew this encounter had changed him. Shown him there was no harm in allowing another close. "I'm so tired" he complained.

"Go back to sleep, I see your reputation back in the day was well deserved" Tifa observed as she went and got a warm wash cloth to clean him and then tucked the sleepy man back into bed and kissed him before stealing from the room to make coffee and decide what food to make for his awakening.

The next day was as Sephiroth had told her, he was still groggy, sore and a little out of it, so they turned his TV onto the movie channel and made love throughout the day in comfortable positions that allowed him to relax.

Tifa watched him while she rode him, he was deeply under the thrall of their lovemaking, his long black eyelashes kissed the blush on his cheeks where his eyes had closed at the sensation of her dancing body as it flexed and adjusted on him while his hands helped guide her hips onto the hard flesh of his erection. He looked so beautiful being make love to as her eyes took in his countenance. They hardly left the couch and their blanket, expect for when Tifa got them snacks or prepared food to keep up his energy and cuddled him as he napped.

The next day, it was her that fastened on his harness and drew his trench up his arms and buckled it up. "So we like to fuck, it changes nothing" she said in a firm tone.

"Do you have to phrase it like that?" He said in distaste.

"So we like to have intercourse" she corrected herself.

"Make love" he corrected her.

"Make love" she agreed, adjusting his collar. "I would say you pass inspection General" she teased him and kissed him on the nose and he smiled at the frivolity of the act.

"Why are you kissing my nose?" He asked her.

"Because you're got a cute nose, gorgeous eyes and sensuous lips" she said kissing each feature as she named them.

"I have to go to work if that is okay with you, I can meet you later at your bar" he offered.

"I have to meet Cloud first to get his explanation, but I would like that" she said.

Sephiroth tried to concentrate on the report in front of him, but could only stare into space and recall their bouts of lovemaking.

It was funny, Sephiroth wasn't one given to flights of whimsy, but had always pictured his first time being surrounded by books. Had he thought his first time would be at a public library as the librarians looked on and cheered? His lips were still quirking at the idea as he went to his usual restaurant for lunch when he stopped dead at what he spied through the window. Cloud had his arms wrapped around Tifa and was kissing her. Sephiroth clutched at his heart and wondered at the sharp pain there as unfamiliar feelings of confusion and betrayal overwhelmed him.

He knew that Tifa had loved Cloud all of life and if they were back together, he wasn't needed and let her go. Cloud would give her what she desired.

Sephiroth turned and went back to the office and rounded on Rufus that he needed a transfer to a more remote office, he didn't even bother going home when Rufus handed him the papers and swore him to secrecy regarding his location, he had houses all over the world that were already equipped for his sudden relocations. He would be gone by the end of the day and his condo would be prepared for his vacating it by an agency that specialized in such things. There was nothing there he was sentimentally attached to, he had never allowed himself to become sentimentally attached to anything. Yet it felt like a black void filled the place where his heart used to be as he wrote a note to Tifa and had it delivered to Tseng to give to her and flew away to the next place he would live. Trying to feel happy for his friend, that she got the man of her dreams but this only upset him.

Tifa sobbed as Yuffie stroked her shoulders as she read Sephiroth's note out loud to her friends.

"Dear Tifa,

Although our time together was amusing; I'm not one for relationships.

I got what I wanted, so it is best that I move on.

We had our fun, but you knew of my reputation back in the day before we got involved.

Don't bother trying to find me.

Yours,

General Sephiroth Crescent"

"But I don't understand, we made love and now this" Tifa sobbed to Yuffie and the tense looking Tseng.

"You did? Tifa this reputation he supposed had. What if I told you it was all made up?" Tseng said, he had been one of the privileged few who knew the truth. "Something isn't right here, we need to find him" Tseng said.

"How made up?" Tifa asked him suspiciously.

"The General was virgo intacta, so to speak and hasn't changed much from what I observed" Tseng said as delicately as possible.

Yuffie and Tifa looked at each other, trying to work it out. "Oh Gawd" Yuffie shrieked when she put two and two together and Tifa's eyes widened in disbelief.

Was it possible?


	5. Chapter 5

The Misunderstanding

Tifa had purposefully chosen the restaurant she frequently met Sephiroth at for her meeting with Cloud as she didn't want to meet him at her place and didn't really go to that many restaurants.

She was studying the menu when he walked in and she raised her hand in greeting. "Cloud" she acknowledged him in a neutral voice.

"Tifa" he said, taking a seat opposite her and placing his riding gear on the seat beside him.

"I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood for small talk. Why her Cloud?" Tifa jumped in.

He took a deep breath, "haven't you ever wished that none of what happened did?" he asked her.

"Of course, sometimes I imagine what my life would have been like if what happened to Nibelheim didn't" she concurred.

"With Eliza, it's like that. She knows what happened but she isn't living in the shadow of the aftermath. She has helped ground me just by being her sweet self. She make me happy, she makes me feel whole. We've all been through so much and I need a change. I don't want to spend all my time with you and the others mourning what we lost; but to live life with her" Cloud explained with a note of regret in his voice.

"I could be there with you" Tifa said.

"No, you're a fine woman Tifa and would make a wonderful wife to the right man and I love you in my own way, but am not in love with you" Cloud said as direct as ever. "It's not a question of who is the better woman. I love you as a friend. I know you've been waiting for me. But you need to move on. Or have you already?" he asked her at her almost guilty look.

She blushed, "I know you're not going to believe this, but I've been, seeing Sephiroth. I don't mean how he was when he was...insane but the him from before that. He's a...decent guy when you get to know him" she assured him.

"You're in love with him?" Cloud asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise at this.

"I suppose I might be" she said, equally as surprised.

"I remember him back in the day, he was very stuffy but a decent guy" Cloud said. "Everyone deserves a second chance, I'm happy for you if it works out but don't expect miracles when it comes to getting through his emotional defenses. He's distrustful by nature for a reason" he cautioned her.

"We're working on that" she said. "So this Eliza, you really love her?" she asked him.

"When I met her it was like I have known her all my life but only in a positive way. We connect, I don't want to be without her" Cloud said.

"Then I'm happy for you too" Tifa said and Cloud gave her a peck on the lips and a hug before departing, that Sephiroth accidently saw and ran from, completely misinterpreting the situation.

Home Sweet Home

Sephiroth lay in the shade of a cherry blossom tree on a nice warm day, it was like he could hear the entire world moving it was so peaceful, he could hear the bees buzzing overhead and the sweet sound of bird calls. He closed his eyes, contented to listen to the sounds of nature, feeling more oddly at peace then he had in a long time. He lay on a blanket on top a soft patch of grass as the shaded sunlight kissed his upturned face.

"What are you doing?" he asked his companion and looked up to where she smiled down on him with amusement as she tucked a wild flower behind his ear as he lay with his head in her lap.

"Well if you're going to be a nature lover, you should look the part" she teased him.

"Although I can appreciate the beauty of flowers, I think they look better on women" he said as he removed it and then sat up and tucked it behind her own ear. "Especially you on you" he said giving her a slight kiss as the pads of his fingers stroked along her cheekbone.

"Happy Birthday Sephiroth" she said as she hugged him and he sighed to be enveloped in her arms with her familiar scent being drawn into his nostrils as if he wanted to drink her in. She leaned back, "we could have done something much more special for your twenty-ninth birthday if you wanted to. I mean a picnic just seems so dull for someone as high energy as yourself" Tifa said.

"It's perfect, I just wanted to be alone with you today and to relax. Besides, I've never been on a picnic before and wanted to try it and I find I'm enjoying myself. I like trying new things with you, like how you take me out of my element and make me experience life. You, make me happy" he admitted to her, threading his fingers into her hair to cup her scalp to make her look at him and realize how hard it was for him to admit what was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the depths of his feelings for her.

"I'm so glad, I love you" she said as her eyes shone with happiness and his answer was a searing kiss as his heart seemed to become light with joy that he was no longer alone, she was his.

"I want to be with you forever" she said when she finally leaned back. "Did you have enough to eat?" she asked him.

"I'm stuffed" he replied.

"I brought dessert, I hope you saved room" she said, reaching into the picnic basket.

"I suppose I could have a little something" he said.

"Close your eyes" she said and he gave her a smile and did and she lightly giggled and he could hear the striking of a match and looked forward to getting his first ever birthday cake.

"Okay you can look now" she said and he opened his eyes and they almost bulged out of their sockets, yes there was a cake in front of him with "Happy Birthday Sephiroth" written on it, but Tifa was stark naked and squirted a dab of whipped cream onto the tip of each of her dusky rose nipples.

"What is going on?" he said in a strangled voice.

"Well first you are going to eat me and then you will get dessert" she said, giving him a wanton look that was nothing like how Tifa ever looked, even during coitus as she spread the whipped cream all over the pouting and suddenly bare lips of her sex.

"End program" Sephiroth practically screamed as he ripped the VR helmet off of his head and glared at the man behind the computer.

"What the hell was with that vulgar display? I asked you only for a program of a birthday picnic" he demanded of him.

"Hey man, with the body dimensions you gave me for that chick, I figured you would like to have a little more fun with that sex kitten and programmed some of the good stuff for you to do. It costs the same" he said with a shrug.

Now Sephiroth was intensively private about his sex life with Tifa; you would have had to torture it out of him that they even kissed. He had been willing to talk to Tseng about it as he was somewhat of a friend and was concerned about Tifa. Sephiroth could respect that. But to have a stranger program even a fake sex act was too much and it was only common sense that prevented him from summoning masamune killing the man.

"How is _that_ supposed to do anything for me?" Sephiroth said, partly out of rage and partly out of curiosity.

"There is an attachment that you can rent for your groin, it's self sterilizing" he explained.

"That is the most revolting thing that I have ever heard. I don't want you to use her image like that ever again" he ordered him.

"Look mack, guys come here to get off and although I'll admit your made up girl is much finer looking than most, you really should have some fun with her. I can guarantee that it will feel just like the real thing" he said.

Sephiroth glared in challenge him, that it was his birthday was the only thing preventing him from ending the man's life right there and then. "I can assure you that the lady in question is not made up, that is her real name and those are her dimensions. I will not cheapen my memory of her by doing vulgar things with only her image alone. I shall pay for this session but I want to you cancel my account and wipe all of my simulation sessions this instant" he insisted.

"Why should you care? All you want to do is boring stuff with her anyway. Who has a girl who looks like that and just takes her on simulation dates?" he challenged him.

"That is none of your business" Sephiroth said in the coldest voice he possessed. "I expect an email stating that my account has been closed and all data wiped, if I find a single image has been kept and used for nefarious purposes, I shall sue you" he threatened and then stepped out into the cold. He wasn't one given to driving but flying called way to much attention to himself and wearing a toque covered the top of his hair and the rest of his hair was braided and tucked into his long winter jacket, making it easier for him to blend into regular society. Not that he was paranoid, but when living in new places, until they got used to him, he got a lot of stares and more than a few glares when he was recognized.

He let himself into his safe house and carried in the grocery bags. Alone again on his birthday, what a surprise he mused.

He found himself imagining what is would be like if Tifa was there with him, perhaps making him a special dinner and fussing over him, then quashed these thought. "Mrs. Cloud Strife" he reminded himself and smiled at picturing her wrestling around a wedding binder and marching her bridesmaids about like a army drill sergeant, her nose wrinkling in that cute way it did when she was faced with making a decision. Her trying on white dresses until she found the perfect one, her getting married...he had to stop when this caused his heart to ache.

No, he was happy for her after years of her waiting for Cloud, to have accidently met his fiancée at a party. The miscreant! How dare he have treated her to like that, he made her cry...it was none of Sephiroth's business, he reminded himself. Searching for something to distract himself, finding nothing.

His safe house was like all the others, it lacked personality, it was like, a hotel room. It was simply but inexpensively furnished. It was four bedroom house, the main bedroom on the first level with a walking closet, kitchen, living room and dining room. There was a loft space over top that had three more bedrooms and a washroom divided by a TV lounge area. He had taken over one of the bedrooms for an office and made a library out of another.

It was a well appointed house he had bought on impulse and wasn't even painted, only primed for paint and oddly enough, only about forty minutes north of Edge. It sat on six acres of land that had its own well, cherry trees and a creek meandered through it. He looked around the place and realized it was the same as all the other places he had lived, only a place to lay his head at night. It wasn't a home, he had never had one. Other people had homes, even Tifa's cramped apartment was a home to her with the loving care she decorated it and took care of it.

Sephiroth's new place was huge in comparison and...so empty. Why couldn't he have nice furniture or a well painted place? Think that a few plants might do to the place? The dining room would look great a colour of slate blue with decorative trees in the corners and get rid of the blinds and hang some nice grey curtains. Suddenly he felt inspired and stowed the groceries for the private dinner he planned to make out of Tifa's lasagna recipe and the cupcake for his candle in honour of his birthday. He picked out a paint he wanted for the dining room online and found out where to purchase it and rang a nursery to make sure they were open for the purchase of plants and got his keys and off he went.

The Sleuth

"Rufus, we'll find him eventually, you might as well disclose which office he's working out of or give me an address" Tseng insisted as he had been for weeks to the stubborn man.

"I have a duty of confidence to all of my employees or would you like me to give out your own personal information to anyone who requests it?" he asked him, Tseng narrowed his eyes at this. "Besides, would you really want me to betray the trust of a sword wielding ex-homicidal manic? I know Tifa has a little crush on him and all but she will have to get over it" he said dismissively.

Now there was something about Tseng; he didn't lie, it went against every principle he possessed, he would rather be hung by his thumbs while live pinching crabs hung from his genitals then lie but circumstances had changed for him. He now had a girlfriend who was keeping him from her bed and any part of her unless he help the depressed Tifa locate Sephiroth, rendering those unused parts of him blue. So he crossed his fingers behind his back and lied like a rug. "It's not just for a crush she needs to see him, it has recently come to light that he can expect the pitter patter of little feet in his future and backup custody support payments if we are unable to locate him" Tseng said looking significantly at the Shinra President.

"I'm sorry, are we talking about the same person? Tifa and _Sephiroth_? That dirty dog. It's always the quiet ones no would suspect" Rufus said with a whistle. "Wait did a doctor confirm this or was it just a pregnancy test?" he asked him suspiciously.

"A doctor did of course. Would I lie to you?" Tseng asked him sharply.

Rufus went into a filing cabinet and pulled out a folder and placed it on his desk. "I feel like having some coffee and shall leave my desk in order to get it, I order you not to go into this file and read his transfer papers and his new address. Do you understand Commander Xu?" he sharply asked him.

"That is crystal clear" he said and snapped a salute at him and then went and asked his own personal assistant to make him a copy of the documents.

Tifa drove her rental car to the address and wondered about the note in Sephiroth's handwriting that said.

"If you are here to pick up kijiji-ed furniture or drop off new furniture, please let yourself in and come directly to the dining room."

Tifa wondered about this but let herself in anyway and noticed a sign with an arrow marked "dining room" there seemed to be a forest of shrubs and house plants in the living room that she wondered about as she followed the sign. She stopped the sight of at the tall figure of a male wearing painting overalls with a baseball cap worn backwards standing on a step ladder as he rolled paint onto the walls. There was something familiar about him and then Tifa spied the long sliver braid. "Sephiroth?" she breathed in shock.

He turned around to show that he had gotten a spot of the grey-blue coloured paint on his cheek. "Tifa but how did you find me?" he said in surprise. "What do you think of the colour?" He asked, not sure what else to say.

She just chose to ignore the last part, "I have my way. What are you doing here? Why did you run away?" she demanded.

"I didn't, I did what was right for you" he said, setting the paint roller back into the tray.

"Well that was nicely cryptic. Want to explain your weird note?" she said, leveling a look at him that should have scorched him on sight. "What was so right for me that you had to sneak away?"

"That day in the restaurant, I saw you and Cloud kissing" he said getting off the stepladder and his head snapped back when she punched him in the jaw.

"You idiot" she said. "He gave me a peck on the lips goodbye. He's marrying Eliza and we're probably getting a wedding invitation" she said.

"Tifa that hurt," he complained, rubbing his jaw. "I thought I was helping you by leaving so you wouldn't have to put up with any interference from me. I want you to be happy and know you love him" Sephiroth said.

"Do you think I would have made love to you if I was in love with another man? I made love to you because I want you, I want to be with you and every moronic bone in your body" she said hugging him.

"But Cloud" he said stupidly.

"How long have you been in love with me?" she asked him.

"Whoa wait a minute. Who said anything about..." he protested only to be silenced with a kiss.

"Tifa this is foolish I don't know how to ..." he tried again, only to have her shut him up again with a kiss.

"I'm no..." he tried again.

"I could kiss you all day long but I think I shall have to take you to bed and prove to you that you do, your body seems to express better what your words cannot" she said.

"But I have people coming all day long" he protested.

"I'll take care of that" she said going to the door, she took off her shoes and hung her sock on the door and locked it behind her.

"This will do you no good" Sephiroth insisted.

Hours Later

"I love you!" he cried on the point of his ejaculation making the bed headed Tifa look back at him over her should and say "see was that so hard?"

He disengaged them and pulled her into his arms as he blushed a painful red colour.

"Why did you lie about being a virgin?" she asked him.

"I didn't, I just didn't tell you the truth. You assumed and I went with it. What is sadder than being with a twenty eight year old virgin?" he asked her.

"Being a twenty eight year old virgin" she countered. "No it makes sense, you didn't have the most conventional life. But had I realized, I would have sought to make your first time more special for you" she said.

"I was half out of it and that is probably what allowed it to happen for us. To be under my proper control, I doubt it would have happened. Besides, I didn't need hundreds of candles and rose petals on a bed for it to have been special for me, you were there" he said taking her hand.

"Now what?" she asked him. "This doesn't change anything" she said.

"Oh this changes a lot" he said.

The Defiant Beauty

Sephiroth lifted back the diaphanous barrier that separated them and Tifa returned his glare "so we like to be together, this doesn't change anything" she spat to him.

"Except your last name" he said and then looked down at her, she wore an aline wedding dress with a full ballroom skirt, strapless sweetheart neckline that was sexy, yet demure that had garnet crystal beading along the edgings, that was also decked out along the hem of the cathedral length veil and matching blusher. Her hair had been arranged into a complex updo and her makeup had been expertly, but lightly applied except for the red lipstick she wore.

He leaned over and claimed his first kiss from her as husband and wife and true to form, he repeated the steps in his head. 1. Put your arms around her possessively. 2. Lean in and give her a soft kiss that is just passionate enough without being vulgar. No tongue should be involved and it shouldn't last more than a few seconds, just long enough for people to cheer; and they did.

"How did you manage to talk me into this?" she whispered to him but with a smile to show she wasn't upset by it.

"I'm good with negotiation" he said. "Now aren't you going to throw your bouquet for your prospective bride-to-be friends?"

"I ought to cram it up your tight little..." she said as she spun around to throw it over her shoulder while Yuffie yelled.

"Over here Tifa!"

"If I was into that, I wouldn't have had to wait so long to lose my virginity. Besides, you are lasting about a second in that dress when we get home." he threatened him and her dirty mind kicked into high gear and the bouquet veered to the extreme right to be caught by Tseng.

His dark eyes went wide to find the rose bouquet in his own grasp and a pack of wedding hopefuls glaring murderously at him. It was eerie and unnerved the stoic man, he would sooner face assassins he decided as he prepared to throw it towards them. "No honey, keep it, that's ours" Yuffie called to him. "Pass it over" she shouted and he did while grinning at the other sad looking girls.

Sephiroth could only stare at their bedroom at the candles crowding every surface and the rose petals scattered on the sheets. "This doesn't look very safe" he complained.

"They are just tea lights, I wanted you to have a proper wedding night after how you lost your virginity. I wanted to make this night special for you and Tseng and Yuffie offered to help" she said.

"Well I suppose we should make the best of it" he said, pouring her a glass of champagne.

They were deep into their lovemaking when Tifa clued Sephiroth there was something wrong by moaning "carpet" on her pinnacle.

"What?" Sephiroth said sitting up.

"The rug is on fire" she cried out and he set her aside and doused the first with the rest of the champagne and doused the other candles with a spell cast from himself. He looked at his wife huddled on the bed and picked off a rose petal stuck to his butt.

"Tifa, I don't think romantic works for us, it is far too dangerous" he said with a laugh.

"You did want to replace the carpet anyway with hardwood floors" she commented.

"Come on, let's go sleep in the guest room" he said, putting his arm around her to lead her from the smell of scorched rug mixed with champagne.

THE END.

Thank you for the reviews and those who enjoyed it, this is the end. Sid.


End file.
